First Songs – Don’t Throw Them Away

If you’ve found your way to this blog because you too write words and music for fun or profit, then you probably remember your first song. This is mine.

What’s more, you can probably remember the circumstances in which you wrote it. Maybe it was inspired by your first serious love affair – or less sweetly, your first meaningful breakup. Whatever, the inspiration, I bet you found it easy to write. You were (probably) young and unencumbered by any sense of your own limitations. You just sat down and let the words and music flow out.

Rediscovery

The reason, I’m talking about this is because I recently rediscovered my own first song after many many years. The discovery came through playing it for fun and thinking: “you know what, I would like to record this.” Why? Because it had a strong melody and pushed my voice to places it rarely goes these days. The words were those of an 18 year old – but I could live with them.

So why hadn’t I recorded it before? Well, it was an acoustic song and in 1997, punk happened. I set aside my acoustic, bought an electric guitar and amp, and for a few years, I rocked out. When I returned to being an acoustic troubadour, Come Tomorrow was forgotten.

And now it’s on my new album – Love & Pride, because it seems to fit and I like it. In the words of English songwriter Ralph McTell: “You were my first song and I still love you.”